ROSSIKE:


You are WRONG. Pakistan, Jordan, Syria and Iraq hold 60% of the world's 10 million refugees.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_refugee_population

Not that I blame you. You are also a victim of western media distortion.

BackDatAssUp:


They became diplomatically relevant after they became successful.

Diplomacy is not a get free card. You get diplomatic currency when you have something to offer.

BackDatAssUp:


Depending on western data only to discredit western perception.

The very western perception you are condemning was arrived from those same facts.

ROSSIKE:


But Africa, unlike India and China, is not a single country, so there will not be an ''arrival of Africa'', so to speak. Some countries of Africa will always lag behind, and those will be the countries used by the western media to represent 'Africa' - like the Chadian refugee tent. They could just as easily have gone to Accra or a suburb of Dakar or Jo'burg. But they chose the Chadian refugee tent to denote ''dinner in an African family''. They would still do that even if say Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia were to become nuclear powers and industrial giants.

SirShymex:


I concur, but to an extent.

With diplomacy (not the power-play involved in international politics) - there are other tangibles you can use to your advantage, when you have a well defined foreign policy. Algeria isn't a big player yet, but when it comes to diplomacy, it always play its card right. Ditto South Africa, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and a host of South American countries.

Regardless, I don't think the image has anything to do with diplomacy.

SirShymex:


Both China and India are more or less continents lol. And both countries have more people than the whole of Africa combined.

See the truth is that: Sub Saharan Africa has always been viewed as a single entity, and it's always going to be like that. And trust me, if one country can make a huge leap, that will change everything.

ROSSIKE:

Sorry I've no clue what you're on about. In any case the data is from the UN which cannot be termed ''western''.

BackDatAssUp:


And who controls most of the UN agencies?

My point being that you can not refute western perceptions based on their own data.

That is like cherry picking and taking the values that suit you.

What Africa desperately needs is to fix her problems by themselves with their own home grown solutions.

Every time there is a conflict some where in Africa, the UN and red cross get there before any regional or continental response.

The world is tired of fixing Africa.

Howell24:


1. the terms "black' "white" Yellow" "brown" are racist ,and must be abolished . there are no white or black people .

Howell24:

2. all borders must be opened for free movement of humans to their desired location.
there's no first ,second or third world. those are racist terms created by ignorant and un-evolved people.
We all live in one world as far as God,man and the universe is concerned.

Howell24:

3. organized religion must be abolished from society . only the truth must be allowed in society.

Howell24:


We all live in one world as far as God,man and the universe is concerned.

ROSSIKE:


This thread is about the western MEDIA. The UN is not the western media. The UN comprises nations and staff from across the globe. The western media is owned by a few western private corporations operating in their own interests, which are not necessarily the same as the UN, and thus they cannot be grouped as a single unit.



There are more UN personnel in places like Syria and Jordan than in all of Africa, despite what the western media tell you.

Howell24:
I believe in God,not religion.
Negroes have a low self esteem due to the fact that they adhere to colonial religions.

ROSSIKE:
How the [Western] Media Portrays Africa, China, and India Differently

I recently had the pleasure of listening to a fascinating presentation in my Introduction to International Relations class. The professor showed the class pictures what one family in a variety of different countries ate during the duration of a week. The pictures came from the book Hungry Planet, by Peter Menzel. Time Magazine published a series of excerpts (part one and part two) of these pictures.

It was quite interesting to see the typical weekly meal of one family in several countries, ranging from Japan to Germany. The American photo, unfortunately, was the picture-perfect stereotype of over-consuming pre-prepared food (rather than real food).

There was something else that caught my eye, however, as the presentation went on. Like many people, I looked forward to seeing the typical weekly meal of a family in China and a family in India.

Here is India:



This is, needless to say, not a typical family in India. In one of the most crowded countries in the world, this Indian family is the proud owner of an entire house. It looks to be a very nice and well-maintained house as well.

Just by looking at the photo, it’s pretty clear that this Indian family is far and above better off than most Indian families. It’s not very representative of India.

Here’s China:



Again, there’s a big surprise here. This Chinese family has somehow managed the trick of having two children. The family also appears to live in a pristine apartment which is definitely not working-class.

It probably requires a lot of money or connections to have more than one child in China. That means that the family pictured here, just like the Indian family pictured, is very unrepresentative of the typical Chinese family. Both families are much wealthier than the typical citizens of their countries.

What’s the point of this?

Well, here’s a picture of a family in Chad:



This is the stereotypical “starving” African family. The food is obviously not enough for the six people in the picture.

There are two pictures of sub-Saharan African families in the entire photo set – and the other photo also fits the stereotype to a tee.

But this family is very definitely not a typical family in Chad. The family here is living in a refugee camp for Darfur refugees, called the Breidjing Camp. Most Chadians do not live in refugee camps. The family pictured here is probably in the poorest ten percent of Chad’s society. It’s not very representative of Chad.

What you may not know is that Africa’s GDP per capita is actually higher than India’s GDP per capita. There’s an argument to be made that Africans actually live better than Indians.

Yet the African family pictured is chronically short of food, while the Indian family (with their comfortable house) obviously belongs to the country’s elite. So does the Chinese family with its multiple kids.


The Point

China, India, and Africa are not nice places. There are hundreds of millions of very very poor people in all three areas.

Yet, as this picture-album perfectly shows, the portrayals of these three civilizations couldn’t be more different. The media always shows India and China as making great progress. China and India are on the path to the good life. Thus the elite families portrayed in this album.

Africa, on the other hand, is perpetually portrayed as an impoverished wasteland. Dictators, starvation, war – it’s hell. Supposedly. The impoverished Chadian and Malian families in Peter Menzel’s pictures are great examples of this theme.

What would the world be like if the media showed impoverished Indian and Chinese peasants all the time? What would the world be like if the media showed rich and wealthy Africans, rather than starving war refugees, all the time? It’s certainly possible to do. There are more than a billion poor peasants to pick in China and India. Africa has plenty of rich people. But somehow I feel that this won’t happen anytime soon.

http://my.firedoglake.com/inoljt/2012/08/11/how-the-media-portrays-africa-china-and-india-differently/

BackDatAssUp:


The UN depends on the same western media to get the necessary awareness for their missions into ravaged zones.

Without the western media the UN won't be able to get the political will from the same western govts who are the main contributor to UN missions financially, military wise and also for expatriates.

If you think that MSMs like CNN or BBC are truly independent then you are off the tangent. These news outlets help to propagate western govt views and policies.

SirShymex:
A country like Nigeria, with its huge population, needs to make a leap, and drag the rest up - for the image to change. Without that, you'll have to live with the image.

BackDatAssUp:


The UN depends on the same western media to get the necessary awareness for their missions into ravaged zones.

Without the western media the UN won't be able to get the political will from the same western govts who are the main contributor to UN missions financially, military wise and also for expatriates.

If you think that MSMs like CNN or BBC are truly independent then you are off the tangent. These news outlets help to propagate western govt views and policies.

Howell24:
there are no black or white people . there's no white skin. those labels were designed to oppress Negroes .
what comes to your mind when you think of black or white?
the people in the photo below are Negroes,not black .

Negroes are constantly bombarded by negative imagery which influences their psyche and leads to low self worth.

ROSSIKE:


How does all this invalidate the fact that the western media makes it seem that 95% of the world's refugees are in Africa, while the UN data shows the figure is closer to 20% if that?
.

Horus:


Just have a look at the picture you posted:

1 - The woman at the left used chemicals to supress the natural whooly hair

2 - The girl seem to be geneticaly mixed with caucasians.

Is this not a negative imagery which influences their psyche and leads to low self worth?

Black women have to stop making love to Caucasians and men of other races and stop using their energies and mentalities to help maintain CAUCASIAN SUPREMACY by supporting his kind of society and his churches.

SirShymex:


Both China and India are more or less continents lol. And both countries have more people than the whole of Africa combined.

See the truth is that: Sub Saharan Africa has always been viewed as a single entity, and it's always going to be like that. And trust me, if one country can make a huge leap, that will change everything.

Howell24:
the CIA infiltrates Negroe communities with guns and drugs to ruin lives. people need food ,clothing and shelter .that's why there's lots of crime . there'll be less crime if people have the basics of life.
black denotes sadness and gloom. white denotes happiness and joy.
these labels subconsciously affect people's perception ,and must be abolished.there are no white or black people.
it was a deliberate attempt to oppress non Caucasians?

BackDatAssUp:


Currently the refugee concentration is in those conflict zones you mentioned but that those not refute the fact that the UN has been more active in Africa since it's inception than in any other region.

chulla12:
As true as this post may be, there are several things that China and India have (despite widespread poverty) that Nigeria and most Sub-Saharan countries don't:

1. A trillion dollar economy, BRIC membership, image of big economies on a global scale.
2. Cultures and norms that have greatly influenced the modern world. Think of maths, spirituality, gun-powder, paper, etc. (And please don't even mention Egypt. An Egyptian family would not be portrayed in a degrading manner anyway and most people associate Egypt with the middle-east and not Black Africa...whether you think this is right or wrong is another matter).
3. Antiquated societies with substantial physical and written evidences to show for it (see my comment above regarding Egypt).
4. Migratory cultures that seem to produce the image of model minorities everywhere Indians and Chinese are (dominating local markets, over-representation in STEM programs or science and technology, generally avoiding petty crimes such as being drug mules). This is unlike Africans who seem to not hold an upstanding reputation in most countries they migrate to except maybe the US or Canada.
5. More of a threat to the domination of Europe than Sub-Saharan African countries.

all4naija:
That is utter BS you write there!

chulla12:


Please point out the BS I wrote?

1) This is how most Indians are seen by Westerners.


2) The Egyptians are seen as:



3) China has just started to be seen as relevant when their economy took a good turn yet they are seen as people who make fake products and pollute the environment.



The other two statements on the list didn't make sense and I have to leave them.

Those your overly painting of a good picture of those two Asian countries is preposterous to say the least. No intelligent person is going to buy into it.

all4naija:

.